Solar energy potential estimation by

calculating sun illumination hours and sky

view factor on building rooftops using digital
elevation model
Cite as: J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4997888
Submitted: 27 July 2017 . Accepted: 31 December 2017 . Published Online: 24 January 2018

Muhammad Uzair Yousuf, Mubashir Siddiqui, and Naveed ur Rehman

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J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4997888 10, 013703

© 2018 Author(s).
 JOURNAL OF RENEWABLE AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 10, 013703 (2018)

Solar energy potential estimation by calculating sun

illumination hours and sky view factor on building
rooftops using digital elevation model
Muhammad Uzair Yousuf, Mubashir Siddiqui,a) and Naveed ur Rehman
Solar Energy Lab, Mechanical Engineering Department, NED University of Engineering
and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan
(Received 27 July 2017; accepted 31 December 2017; published online 24 January 2018)

The detailed and precise estimation of solar energy is a major requirement for
solar applications on building roof tops. These estimations help in sustainable
development, energy policy making, and renewable energy consumption. In this
paper, a methodology was devised to estimate the solar radiation components. This
methodology is easily accessible using a simple measuring tape to form a digital
elevation model with a cell size of 1  1 sq. ft. Liu and Jordan’s model [Liu and
Jordan, “The interrelationship and characteristic distribution of direct, diffuse and
total solar radiation,” Sol. Energy. 4(3), 1–19 (1960)] was modified for the urban
environment and programmed in MATLAB to estimate solar potential. To validate
the developed algorithm and modified model, the roof-top area of the postgraduate
laboratories of the Mechanical Engineering Department (NED University) was
selected as a case study. Measurements were carried out on different days, which
showed good agreement with the proposed work. Within the study area, the maxi-
mum sunshine hours is 3285 annually, while the site selected has at least 1502 sun-
shine hours irrespective of elevations. Similarly, the sky view factor has
a maximum value of 1 exposed to open plain and a minimum value of 0.4143.
Radiation maps were generated for the installation of solar applications. The results
showed that the average beam radiation was 4.908 kWh/m2, with May and
December having the maximum and minimum beam intensities of 6.679 kWh/m2
and 3.815 kWh/m2, respectively. Similarly, the average diffuse radiation was 2.289
kWh/m2, with maximum and minimum values, occurring in July and October, of
3.611 kWh/m2 and 1.299 kWh/m2, respectively. This work will help energy consul-
tants and households in determining the solar energy potential of the existing flat
rooftops and for future construction, thereby cutting energy bills and producing
long-term monetary incentives from generating their own energy. Published by
AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4997888

NOMENCLATURE
BP British Petroleum
CSP Concentrated solar power
DEM Digital elevation model
ESMAP Energy sector management assistance program
F Sky view factor
GHI Global Horizontal Irradiation
GIS Geographical information system
Ib Hourly beam radiation on the horizontal
Id Hourly diffuse radiation on the horizontal
Ig Hourly global radiation on the horizontal

a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: mubashir@neduet.edu.pk. Tel.: þ92 99261261 ext. 2206.

1941-7012/2018/10(1)/013703/13/$30.00 10, 013703-1 Published by AIP Publishing.

013703-2 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

Iobs Diffuse radiations reaching the horizontal surface from the sky dome affected by
building obstacles
IT Hourly radiation on a tilted surface
LiDAR Light detection and ranging
LJ Liu and Jordan
N Mean day of the month
PV Photovoltaic
Rb Geometric factor
RSI Rotating shadowband irradiometer
S Illumination hours
Smax Maximum sunshine hours
SPD Sun path diagram
ab Building altitude angle
ae Sky element altitude angle
as Sun altitude angle
b Slope or tilt angle
cb Building azimuth angle
ce Sky element azimuth angle
cs Sun azimuth angle
d Declination angle
hz Zenith angle
q Ground reflectance
/ Latitude
x Hour angle

INTRODUCTION
Electricity generation from green technology has been accepted as an important option in
the supply side and future energy policies of various countries. Diminishing fossil fuel resour-
ces and rising greenhouse gas levels have promoted research and development in the field of
renewable energy systems, which have a positive influence on global environmental and eco-
nomic issues According to British Petroleum (BP) Statistical Energy Survey 2016, renewable
energy accounted for 6.7% of global power generation, including solar power generation, which
had grown by 32.6%.2 In the USA, installed solar electricity capacity increased by more than
54% (about 5.5 GW), Photovoltaic (PV) capacity by 51%, and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)
capacity by 84%, in 2014. China, on the other hand, leads the world in global photovoltaic
module production, accounting for 66% of total production.3 It is estimated that electricity pro-
duction from solar PV will compete with coal, globally, by 2050.4
Solar energy is clean, free, and abundant and is the oldest energy source ever used. It has
been the focus of increasing amounts of research. Rooftop areas in urban environments are con-
sidered suitable locations for installing solar energy devices, including solar thermal collectors
and PV panels. The urban rooftop solar energy potential could have a tremendous effect on
countries’ renewable energy schemes and sustainable energy policies and has the potential to
be a major pillar of energy policy strategies. In practice, solar energy potential can be estimated
using methods ranging from simple estimations to expensive Light Detection and Ranging
(LiDAR) technologies. For solar process design and performance calculations, it is often neces-
sary to calculate hourly radiation. The major requirement is to calculate not only daily data but
also beam and diffuse radiation in the plane of a collector.5
Urban environments consist of high and variably elevated buildings. Also, each building has
variable elevations due to the existence of penthouses, parapet walls, roof tanks, and elevated
columns. The shadows cast by these obstacles can significantly affect incoming solar radiation
and have significant spatial and temporal variations. Thus, urban energy potential estimation is a
significant challenge and has been discussed by many researchers. Wiginton et al.6 estimated the
PV potential by dividing a region and assessing a sample of buildings. Singh and Banerjee7
013703-3 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

calculated the solar potential of a city using PVSyst to calculate the photovoltaic available roof
area ratio. Horvath et al.8 calculated the solar energy potential based on building typology
including the shading factor. A Geographical Information System (GIS)-based approach has also
been used by some researchers to address the spatial factors. Ordonez et al.9 determined the
solar energy potential of installing grid-connected photovoltaic systems on rooftops in
Andalusia. This study was based on Google Earth digital maps. Similarly, Sun et al.,10 Jamal
et al.,11 and Wong et al.12 used this approach to compile and analyze geographic data for poten-
tially bright roof-top areas. GIS-based tools and databases, such as PVGIS,13 have been used to
calculate PV potential for a number of countries. However, these tools have not taken into
account complex terrain shadowing effects.
Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology is popular for estimating solar
energy, as it makes height grids in urban environments easily accessible. Tereci et al.14 estimated
the annual solar potential for one urban quarter using LiDAR data, ALK map data, and GIS soft-
ware. Several approaches can be adopted to calculate shadow maps of the terrain for a specified
time. Most of them start with a point of interest in a 2.5-D elevation model and search in the
direction of the sun, along a specified radius, to determine whether there are points that can
obstruct the path of incoming sunlight. Lee and Zlatanova15 used LiDAR to form a 2.5-D urban
surface model to process facades and roofs separately. An algorithm proposed by Redweik
et al.16 calculates solar irradiation at every point, taking a geo-referenced regular height grid as
input, using LiDAR Technology. Their proposed methodology is based on the r.sun radiation
model developed by Suri et al.17 and indicates that the potential of building facades is lower
than that of roofs although facades have large areas.
A methodology other than LiDAR was discussed by Li et al.18 They developed a pixel-
based methodology for existing and future urban flat rooftops. They used a Google SketchUp
and MATLAB combination and presented their results using image processing. Their study
area included an urban area of Xiuyuan city comprising two office buildings and twenty-four
apartment buildings and presented annual and seasonal radiation maps.
These studies have shown great potential in evaluating solar energy potential and will be
of great importance in energy policy-making strategies worldwide.
Electricity generation using PV panels on urban rooftops requires more accurate measure-
ments to precisely determine solar radiation levels, due to the rapid development of urban solar
energy applications. High resolution images are needed to determine the solar potential distribu-
tion over building rooftops. Such datasets are not commonly available for most cities in devel-
oping countries and are urgently needed as PV electricity generation is on the rise in urban
areas since solar PV prices per kWh have reached new low levels. With a focus on investor
benefits and on helping ordinary households access electricity without the need for heavy finan-
cial investment, this work is an advancement in the existing literature.19
The costly LiDAR-based techniques start with aerial data collection to construct a continuous
Digital Surface Model (DSM). The raster size for DSM usually ranges from 0.3 m to 1 m16,20,21
and is only applicable for existing rooftops. However, investors are also keenly interested in the
assessment of future urban solar potential. Unlike previous methods, the present methodology
begins with a simple tape measurement of the rooftop area and the associated nearby building ele-
vations, using a cell size of 1  1 sq. ft (0.3048 m  0.3048 m). This methodology estimates solar
potential by simultaneously evaluating illumination hours, sky view factors, and beam and diffuse
solar irradiations for all cells of the selected Digital Elevation Model (DEM) at any instant in
time, allowing the calculation of irradiation over any period of time, from 1 h to 1 year, for exist-
ing as well as future planned buildings. The data from each cell can be independently processed,
and thus, the integrated results help in generating radiation maps for projected solar applications.
This paper is organized as follows: First, the necessary transformations for the DEM are
given. Second, sky view factor calculations for an obstacle free site are given. Finally, solar
angle calculations to assess illumination hours and sky view factors including obstacles are pro-
vided. In order to calculate a mathematical model for every hour of the year, an algorithm was
developed and programmed on MATLAB. This requires a Digital Elevation Model (DEM),
which calculates the total number of illumination hours, sky view factor, and beam and diffuse
013703-4 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

radiation components. This method is applicable to flat rooftops on existing and planned build-
ings. Once this methodology is fully developed, it can be extended to other cities to aid in pol-
icy decisions for large-scale solar power applications. This methodology is a viable option for
individuals or areas with limited financial sources.

METHODOLOGY
Necessary transformations for the DEM
This methodology is based on the DEM. 3D DEMs are not commonly available for most
cities in developing countries; therefore, we used a simple tape measure for measuring the roof-
top area and the associated nearby building elevations. The cell resolution of DEM is 1  1 sq.
ft., so as to get as much detailed information as possible. These measurements help to form a
raster image in which the total number of grids shows the length and the breadth of the selected
area, while the associated grid number shows the elevation, as shown in Fig. 1.
The Liu and Jordan1 (LJ) model suggests that open sky will receive all the diffuse radiation
if placed horizontally and half of the total diffuse radiation if placed at 90 . Therefore, a sur-
face tilt at an angle b has a view factor of
Fcs ¼ ð1 þ cos bÞ=2 (1)

and the radiation on a tilted surface ðIT Þ is the sum of the beam contribution ðIb Þ, the diffuse
radiation on a horizontal surface ðId Þ, and global radiations ðIg Þ, calculated as
   
1 þ cos b 1  cos b
IT ¼ Ib Rb þ Id þ Ig q ; (2)
2 2

where Rb is the geometric factor and q is the surface albedo.

For a horizontally placed collector, Eq. (2) modifies to
IT ¼ Ib Rb þ Id : (3)

This equation works well for an open environment but is not applicable in an environment con-
taining obstacles to incoming radiation. Thus, for an urban environment, the model equation
can be modified as
IT ¼ SðIb Rb Þ þ FðId Þ; (4)

where S is the illumination hours. At a particular time, a point of interest may not receive
direct solar irradiation. Thus, the illumination hour can be seen as a time-dependent binary fea-
ture of a selected point, having a value of 0 or 1 depending on whether the collector will cast a
shadow or not. F is the sky view factor, with a value between 0 and 1 depending how much
diffuse radiation is blocked by obstacles. F can be calculated as

F ¼ Iobs =Id ; (5)

FIG. 1. Illustrating the DEM for a cell size of 1  1 sq. ft. The x and y axes show the length and the breadth of the rooftop,
while the grid number shows the elevation of the building/obstacle.
013703-5 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

where Iobs is the diffuse radiation reaching the horizontal surface from a sky dome affected by
building obstacles.
In this analysis, south is used as a benchmark (0 ). Therefore, for any other orientations
(excluding south), transformations are applied to make the obstacle orientation always toward
the south. The frame of reference is set at the first cell, and trigonometric relationships and dis-
tance formula are applied at every degree of angle from 1 to 360 . This acts as a radius of
search from the collector for the overall DEM. As a result, the related geometry of buildings
and obstacles, i.e., the distances, building azimuth angles (cb ), and building altitude angles (ab ),
can be calculated, and the cell numbers of tall buildings that block incoming radiation are
recorded.
A building with maximum elevation may not have a maximum effect on a collector. The
beam radiation obstruction will depend on both the elevation and the distance from the collec-
tor. A higher elevation building further away from the collector may have little or no effect,
while a nearby lower elevation building may have a large effect on a collector.

Sky view factor calculations for an obstacle free site

The incoming diffuse radiation is uniformly distributed due to the isotropic sky vault. To
visualize the radiation, this vault is divided into small portions of ae  ce , i.e., 1  1 (stera-
dians), such that the total number of elements is (91  360) 32 760, as shown in Fig. 2. This
technique helps in visualizing the effects of sky elements because of variations in the angles
measured from the normal axis of the collector within the entire DEM. The area of a single ele-
ment will be Dce : cos ae :Dae . The normal direction of this element shows the magnitude of the
radiation. All elements are of the same magnitude “M” because of the isotropic sky model but
have different directions (diffuse hemispherical vault). Following the assumption that the collec-
tor is placed horizontally, the angle of incidence between incoming radiations from an element
and normal to the collector can be calculated using the dot product k as

sin ae
cos h ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (6)
2 2
ðcos ae cos ce Þ2 þ ðcos ae sin ce Þ þ ðsin ae Þ

and the radiance received by the collector will be

Ie ¼ M:cos h: (7)

Equation (7) shows that the radiance will be maximum if h ¼ 0 and minimum if h ¼ 90 .
Therefore, the total radiation will be the sum of all the radiations coming from the entire
vault as

FIG. 2. Schematic presentation of the sky vault around the flat panel along with the spherical coordinate system, presenting
altitude and azimuth angles of the sun, sky element, and building/obstacle.
013703-6 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

X
90 X
360
Id ¼ Ie Dce : cos ae : (8)
ae ¼0 ce ¼1

Solar angle calculations

The geometric relationships between a plane relative to the earth at any time and the posi-
tion of the sun relative to that plane can be defined by various angles.22
The declination d for each day can be found from the approximate equation of Cooper23
 
284 þ n
d ¼ 23:45sin 360  ; (9)
365

where n is the nth day of the year, varying from 1 to 365.

The angular displacement of the local meridian, i.e., the hour angle (xÞ, due to rotation of
the earth (polar axis) at 15 per hour is expressed as

x ¼ ðSolar Time  12Þ  15: (10)

The sun altitude angle (as ) and azimuth angle (cs ) can be calculated as

as ¼ sin1 ðsin d sin / þ cos d cos / cos xÞ; (11)

  
 1 cos hZ sin /  sin d 

cs ¼ sign ðxÞcos ; (12)
sin h cos / 
Z

where hz ¼ 90  as (zenith angle).

These solar angle calculations were carried out for every hour of the year, i.e., 24  365.
The descriptions of these angles are shown in Table I.
The next step includes the comparison of different angles. For the same values of azimuth
angles (cb ¼ cs Þ, the altitude angles are compared. If as > ab , the collector will capture the
beam radiation; otherwise, the building will cast a shadow on the collector. A similar approach
is used for sky elements, i.e., for the same values of azimuth angles (ce ¼ cs Þ, the altitude
angles are compared. If ae > ab , the collector will not be affected by the obstacle and will
behave as for an open sky; otherwise, the obstruction causes some of the diffuse radiation to be
blocked and the collector experiences only the partial value of the diffuse component.
The formulated approach can be summarized in eight easy steps:

TABLE I. Description of all the angles and their limits after necessary transformations.

Angle Symbol Description (after transformation)

Building altitude angle ab The angle between the horizontal and the building with maximum elevation
whose shadow will affect the collector area 0  ab  90
Building azimuth angle cb The angular displacement of the projection of the building with maximum elevation,
on the horizontal plane measured from south, whose shadow
will affect the collector area 1  cb  360
Element altitude angle ae The angle between the horizontal and the sky vault element 0  ae  90
Element azimuth angle ce The angular displacement of the sky vault element projection on the horizontal plane,
measured from south 1  ce  360
Sun altitude angle as The angle between the horizontal and the line to the sun 0  as  90
Sun azimuth angle cs The angular displacement of beam radiation projection on the horizontal plane,
measured from south 1  cs  360
013703-7 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

Step 1: Select the DEM and specify the site parameters, i.e., latitude, longitude, and south direc-
tion. For a single 1  1 sq. ft. analysis (point of interest), specify the x and y coordinates.
Step 2: Transform the Cartesian coordinates and angular directions with respect to the point of
interest such that the (0,0) axis lies at the point of interest and the south direction is always at 0 .
Step 3: Calculate the diffuse radiation component for open sky with no obstacles (Id) by reducing
the sky dome to sky elements.
Step 4: For values of angles between 1 and 360 , calculate the building altitude angle ðab Þ to
record the largest value for each angle.
Step 5: Calculate the solar angles (as ; cs Þ to specify the location of the sun for the whole
year.
Step 6: Based upon steps 4 and 5, compare the altitude angles for the same values of azimuth
angles to specify the sun illuminating hours (S) and the diffuse component with the obstacle
(Iobs).
Step 7: Based upon the calculations in steps 3 and 6, calculate the sky view factor (F ¼ Iobs/Id).
Step 8: Use the modified LJ method to calculate the beam and diffuse components of the incom-
ing radiation.
The methodology is illustrated in the flowchart in Fig. 3.

FIG. 3. Flowchart of the main computer program on MATLAB developed according to the proposed methodology for find-
ing the Illumination hours, sky view factor, and beam and diffuse radiations using the LJ Model for flat panels.
013703-8 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

FIG. 4. Case Study of the rooftop area of postgraduate laboratories of NEDUET: (a) Actual rooftop area of 59 ft.  32 ft.
with a maximum elevation of 8 ft. and (b) associated DEM and position of the south direction from the positive x-axis.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Physical site survey
As a case study, the rooftop area of the postgraduate laboratory of the Mechanical
Engineering Department, NED University of Engineering and Technology (24.9334 N,
67.1116 E), was analyzed to validate the proposed methodology. The magnetic declination of
the site is 0.96 E 6 0.29 .24 The examined rooftop area was 32  59 sq. ft. with a maximum
elevation of 8 feet. The simulation was performed for the whole year. The DEM and the true
compass direction are shown in Fig. 4.

Simulation results
Based on the DEM of the surveyed roof top area, several points of interest (1  1 sq. ft.)
were selected so that some experienced shadow and some did not. The selection of these points
helped in validating the proposed methodology. The simulations were performed, and the solar
radiations were calculated. For validation, illuminating hours were justified by physically visit-
ing the site. Radiation was measured by placing a pyranometer and using the weather station
data of the NED University of Engineering and Technology,25 measured with Twin-Rotating
Shadowband Irradiometer (RSI), averaging from two LiCors (Fig. 5) from July 2015 to June
2016.

FIG. 5. The weather station situated at the NED University of Engineering and Technology as a project of Energy Sector
Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). The station is equipped with a CSPS Twin-sensor Rotating Shadowband
Irradiometer (RSI) and a Kipp and Zonen CMP10 pyranometer for the redundant GHI measurement.
013703-9 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

TABLE II. Comparison between hourly solar radiations determined using the proposed methodology and experimental
results. Two different locations are presented for 19 April, 2016 at (5,12) and 27 April, 2016 at (8,33).

19th April (x ¼ 5 ft, y ¼ 12 ft.) 27th April (x ¼ 8 ft, y ¼ 33 ft.)

Date location
2 2
Time (h) S F I model (W/m ) I exp (W/m ) Error (%) S F I model (W/m2) I exp (W/m2) Error (%)

10:00 1 0.7347 567 549 3.1746 1 0.9727 626 600 4.15335

11:00 1 760 730 3.94737 1 783 758 3.19285
12:00 1 836 834 0.23923 1 884 864 2.26244
13:00 0 225 215 4.44444 1 916 890 2.83843
14:00 1 373 360 3.48525 1 883 856 3.05776
15:00 0 322 307 4.65839 1 790 762 3.5443

TABLE III. Calculations of the declination angle, hour angle, and sunshine hour for the average day of the month as
described by Klein.

Month Day Day of the year (N) d (deg) x (deg) Smax (h)

January 17 17 20.82 79.82 10.64

February 16 47 12.89 83.89 11.19
March 16 75 2.41 88.88 11.85
April 15 105 9.37 94.4 12.59
May 15 135 18.7 99.05 13.21
June 11 162 22.98 101.37 13.52
July 17 198 21.08 100.32 13.38
August 16 228 13.39 96.35 12.85
September 15 258 2.21 91.03 12.14
October 15 288 9.55 85.51 11.4
November 14 318 18.82 80.88 10.78
December 10 344 22.94 78.65 10.49

FIG. 6. Radiation map, simulating the total number of illumination hours for the selected DEM throughout the year.
013703-10 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

These results showed good agreement with the simulation. The same practice was adopted
for multiple days to check for variations. The selected results are shown in Table II.
A major advantage of this methodology includes the estimation of more approximate solar
radiations for an urban site on an hourly, monthly, or monthly average daily basis without using
pyranometers. After validating the methodology for a single point of interest, simulations were
performed for bright sunshine hours. The maximum sunshine hour angles for an average day of
every month26 for Karachi city are shown in Table III. The literature suggests that the average
bright sunshine hour for Karachi is 9; therefore, for monthly average daily radiations, simula-
tions were carried out for a local time period of 08:00–16:00 h throughout the year. The results
are presented in Figs. 6–8.
Figure 6 displays the illumination hours for the entire DEM. The results show that the maxi-
mum sunshine hours for the surveyed site is 3285 h (37.5%) annually, while the site has at least
1502 sunshine hours (17.15%), irrespective of elevations. Therefore, for installing any solar
application on the surveyed site in the future, this result will provide an aid to technical and eco-
nomic analysis, i.e., which portion of the surveyed rooftop will have maximum illumination and

FIG. 7. Radiation maps, simulating the beam radiations for the selected DEM for the mean day of every month.
013703-11 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

FIG. 8. Radiation map, simulating the sky view factor for the selected DEM throughout the year.

in what areas will there be compromises with shadow. The Building Footprint Area can be eas-
ily determined using these results for an urban site.
For monthly calculations, Fig. 7 shows beam irradiation for an average day for every month
and Table III shows the maximum and minimum values for irradiation. The day length is longer
in summer as compared to winter, as shown in Table III. Months from May to July have day
lengths of around 13 h, whereas months from Nov to Jan have values of around 10 h. Thus, the
summer season will experience lower shadows, and shadow intensity will be higher in winter.
This behaviour is illustrated in Fig. 7, depending on the Sun Path Diagram (SPD). For the lati-
tude of Karachi, the dominant shadow intensity in winter is almost double the shadow intensity
in summer.

TABLE IV. Range of beam and diffuse radiations for the mean day of the month calculated by simulations for the entire
DEM.

Beam irradiation Diffuse irradiation

2
kWh/m kWh/m2

Month High Low High Low

January 3.829 0.552 1.432 0.593

February 4.817 1.249 1.726 0.715
March 5.418 1.652 1.809 0.749
April 5.818 3.324 2.617 1.084
May 6.679 3.953 1.949 0.808
June 6.239 2.922 2.463 1.020
July 4.135 1.948 3.611 1.496
August 4.585 1.93 2.957 1.225
September 4.766 1.438 3.111 1.289
October 5.128 1.71 1.299 0.538
November 3.668 0.914 2.206 0.914
December 3.815 0.544 2.283 0.946
013703-12 Yousuf, Siddiqui, and Rehman J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 10, 013703 (2018)

Table IV presents the maximum and minimum values of beam radiations. This table shows
that the average beam radiation for Karachi city is 4.908 kWh/m2, with May and December
having the maximum and minimum beam intensities of 6.679 kWh/m2 and 3.815 kWh/m2,
respectively.
The sky view factor exhibits a spatial as well as a temporal nature; therefore, nearby
obstacles affect the irradiance coming from each element of the sky dome. The simulation sug-
gests that the sky view factor has a maximum value of 1 exposed to open plain and a minimum
value of 0.4143 as shown in Fig. 8. These sky view factors affect diffuse radiations, and their
maximum and minimum monthly average daily values are given in Table IV. For Karachi city,
the average diffuse radiation is 2.289 kWh/m2, with maximum and minimum values occurring
in the months of July and October of 3.611 kWh/m2 and 1.299 kWh/m2, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The solar energy generation potential for urban environments depends heavily on the pres-
ence of nearby obstacles. These will not only affect the beam radiations because of cast shadows
but also decrease the diffuse component. The results obtained indicated that the illumination
hours varied between 1502 and 3285 h, with a range of 1783. Similarly, the sky view factor var-
ied between 0.414 and 1, with a range of 0.586. These are very important findings as the differ-
ence between the two is more than 100%. Without these estimations, the feasibility report for
solar applications would show a lower payback period, which could significantly influence
investment and economic policies. Knowledge of these values is important in estimating total
solar energy potential for the collector. This analysis also helped in analyzing shadow distances.
For instance, for an 8-foot high obstacle, the significant shadow was 16% of the total length in
summer, while this value reached up to 32% of the total length in winter. This analysis helps in
the selection of locations for solar collector installations. This is a generalized formulation that
can be extended to any location and can help in energy policy-making worldwide.
1
B. Y. H. Liu and R. C. Jordan, “The interrelationship and characteristic distribution of direct, diffuse and total solar
radiation,” Sol. Energy. 4(3), 1–19 (1960).
2
See https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/energy-economics/statistical-review-2016/bp-statistical-review-of-world-
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